Wednesday 23 July 2008

A Return

Hello world.

It's been a while, and a topsy-turvey spring-into-summer in which life got in the way of blogging. Both my parents have been in the hospital at different points in the last couple of months with their own worrying health problems. Luckily, my father has come through the worst of his pneumonia with only the need to put on some more weight to bring him back to normal. My mother stays more of a long-term worry and a last-minute trip home recently showed me how difficult things may be. It's never easy getting old or watching those close to you get old, and feels even more difficult when you have to start thinking about questions around your loved one's care.

On a positive side, I've also spent the last many weeks struggling with a different sort of problem. Happily, I am pregnant, bringing with it lots of excitement but also an entirely different relationship to
food. I've been fairly sick a good part of the time so far, and even more than the emotional strain of family problems, the physical impossibility of keeping up a food blog during the worst of the sickness was a persuading force on the blog break. It is difficult when the most exciting thing you can report for a week was that you one night felt up to eating 11 Ritz crackers and having a sweet mint tea, and then spent the next 5 nights refusing any proximity to food.

At 20 weeks now, things have evened out though still aren't perfect. Food has more of a necessity than before - I need to eat dinner by 7pm or else I'm at risk of cleaning out the nearest cupboard without any discrimination for what I'm eating. It fills my tummy, but doesn't lend itself to creative cooking and experimenting with new ideas. I'm sure life will have many more changes once baby is here, and not just on the food front.


Mr A&N (who has been wonderful throughout, please note, dear reader) and I did get to grab two weeks away in France as something of a last hurrah before family life changed. Although the pregnancy eating guidelines seem like a full-frontal attack on the French diet (no soft or blue-tinged cheeses...no rare meat...no cured meats...no liver...no pate...lay off the wine) I bought tins of foie gras and forbidden drinks home as my souvenirs, to be indulged in in 4-5 months time. We also got to hone our parenting skills on the farm we stayed at, adopting a hen and her six chicks. They would be found outside our door first thing in the morning for the first of their feeds, and any walks around the grounds were spent with the whole two- legged family following behind our each step. Maybe not perfect practice for a human baby, but it felt nice to be needed.

18 comments:

Peter M said...

Thanks for the update Anne-MArie and I hope MA & PA are doing well.

Congrats on getting preggers...show us some new flavour combos!

jasmine said...

HUGS!

You know where I am if you need anything...even if it's to offload some of the forbidden foods :)

j

Pille said...

Congrats on the pregnancy! Glad to hear you got some rest in France.
And keeping my fingers crossed that everything will work out fine with your parents!

Jules said...

Sorry to hear that your parents haven't been very well.

Congratulations on the fantastic news!

Anonymous said...

Oh, congratulations! But I also hope that your parents get better soon!

Beth (jamandcream) said...

Congratulations on your pregnancy. My love affair with food stopped for the first 3 months I was pregnant - I wasn't sick, I just couldn't face eating some of my favourite foods. Instead I started craving sweet things - which is completely unheard of for me. They say you crave sweet foods if you're having a girl and savoury for a boy - that worked out right for me!

Cynthia said...

It is so good to have you back. Congrats on being pregnant and I am thrilled that you have such a loving partner to support you as you deal with all that life's thrown at you recently.

Karen Baking Soda said...

Wonderful news Anne-Marie, congratulations! Hope your parents will get an extra health boost by your news, hope they both will get better eventually.

Wendy said...

You must be exhausted. Congratulations on the wonderful baby news: VERY exciting! And I hope your parents' health improves soon.
Take good care of yourself.
Big hugs. x

Anonymous said...

Welcome back Anne-Marie, glad your parents seem to be on the mend, I'm sure your news must have helped, congratulations!

Susan from Food Blogga said...

It's so wonderful to hear from you again, Anne-Marie! And congratulations on becoming a Mom! I hope you feel better in the remaining months of your pregnancy, and I wish your parents all the best. Take care!

Anonymous said...

Wow! Congratulations :-)

Sorry to hear about your parents, I hope their health improves.

Niamh

Annemarie said...

Hi Peter - thanks. I will try to keep some of the more...unique...flavors from public eyes, but hope I come up with other good stuff!

Hi Jasmine - Consider all my rare steaks and hamburgers winging their way to you now. :)

Hi Pille - Thanks very much.

Hi Jules - thank you.

Hi Su-lin - thanks for both sets of wishes.

Hi Beth- Funnily enough, it was my reaction to food that convinced me (correctly) whether I was carrying a boy or girl. I won't spill the beans since some in the family have opted not to know, but your food theory thing is really interesting even if for me it was totally the opposite of what I should have been craving. :)

Hi Cynthia - thanks for the kind words. My biggest hope now is I can start getting some sleep, before baby comes and robs me of it forever!

Hi Baking Soda - Thanks! I do think the baby news helped out some, so hooray for that. :)

Hi Wendy - Yes, I'm a *little* bit tired. ;)

Hi Ginger - thank you!

Hi Susan - thanks very much. :)

Hi Niamh - thanks!

Andrea Meyers said...

Wow, congratulations! Foregoing favorite foods during pregnancy is such a downer. I missed sushi the most. And margaritas. And sangria. :-)

Gigi said...

Congrats on becoming a soon-to-be-mommy! You have definitely been missed but we understand when food is just not appealing. Welcome Back Anne-Marie!

Jeanne said...

Hey - congratulations! That's wonderful news.

And I'm sorry to hear about your parents' health problems. It's very distressing when you realise that you are now the one who needs to think about caring for your parents rather than the other way round. I hope you can find a way forward that works for the whole family and guarantees quality of life for everyone.

But for now, your priority is a healthy pregnancy - enjoy!

Helene said...

Congratulations AnneMarie! It is such wonderful news!

Amanda at Little Foodies said...

Sorry to hear about your parents. Hope they're both okay.

Congratulations on the baby news. Rotten luck with feeling sick all that time.